Month: July 2014

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education, teaching

Tony Danza is not a teacher!

Teachers are the experts in the education field and their voices need to be at the forefront of changing the way this country’s children get educated.  Unfortunately, no one is listening.

A big “thank you” to Bill and Melinda Gates for donating billions of dollars to public schools.  But Microsoft should not be the face of education reform.

Creating a reality TV show with Tony Danza as a classroom teacher may garner ratings, but all it does is bring more attention to Mr. Danza than those who year after year positively impact young people’s lives.

Congratulations to filmmaker David Guggenheim on his education documentary “Waiting for Superman” but he shouldn’t be the one on Oprah.

The people who deserve to be in the spotlight, who should be the stars of the public school reform show, are the classroom teachers.

Many bright instructors are in America’s classrooms right now who could do wonders in transforming public schools if given the opportunity.  Why won’t anyone listen to them when it comes to how schools should be run?

When 46 of the nation’s governors held a groundbreaking meeting on high school reform in February of 2005, no teachers were present.  This is like holding hearings on tort reform without a single attorney there.  Why would anybody intelligent do that?

It seems no matter how hard they work, when it comes down to it, teachers are shut out from the decision-making process.  Just when teachers feel they have reached a certain level of respectability in their profession, sit on committees, chair departments, mentor other teachers, they quickly slip back to reality:  they wield no authority.  Despite their achievements, in the eyes of those in charge, they remain teachers, nothing more, and most definitely not needed for establishing education policy and reform.

Whenever politicians talk about what needs to be done in education, they always seem to forget to invite the people who have the most direct connection to the students: the teachers.  Despite many of them sending their own kids to private schools, and having never spent a single day teaching a class, these lawmakers think nothing of dictating educational policies without the representation and advice of the people who do the teaching.  It makes about as much sense as having these same politicians debate a new surgical procedure and not having a single surgeon in the room.  That would never happen in the medical community, but it happens all the time in education.

It is frustrating for teachers to work in a system where they are accustomed to being the leader in the classroom, yet subservient to principals, superintendents, and, above else, politicians.  Teachers’ thoughts and concerns are ignored, discounted, overruled.

The California State University found that “having meaningful input in the decision-making process” increases teacher retention.  Teachers not feeling that their input is valued end up exiting the profession.

The time has come for teachers to be in charge of their own profession.  Teachers need to chair committees, lead state school boards, run for state superintendent positions.  The President of the United States should create a new position of Education Czar, a post that carries one stringent requirement:  several years of exemplary teaching experience.

The greatest resource a school has to offer is its finest teachers.  If given the chance, they might just be able to transform America’s schools.

No one in a position of power, from presidents to principals to managing editors, believes that school teachers have anything worthwhile to say in fixing America’s declining public school system.  Teachers are rarely consulted, their advice never used in any decision-making capacity on how best to teach to children. Most definitely, they are not the face of the teaching profession.

Whenever the media, especially television, use on-screen attorneys to dissect the latest headline-grabbing trial, it makes sense to have those who have studied and practiced law to discuss the law.  And when the story revolves around terrorism, all kinds of security specialists surface including ex-secretaries of state and CIA officials.  Yet when the subject turns to education, who are the experts sought out by the media? Former U.S. education secretaries, think tank opine-ers, or anyone with a household name of Bill as in Bill Gates or Bill Cosby.  Almost all newspaper op-ed pieces on education are written by people with these pedigrees.  Rare it is to find a byline of an actual classroom teacher.

Oh sure, every September there’ll be a “first day” diary written by a local teacher. And once in a while a newspaper will track the year of a teacher, but even that is written by a journalist.

Would a person give more credence to a friend or neighbor on how best to treat a medical condition than what an actual medical doctor has to say?  Yet year after year anyone with name recognition chimes in on how best to teach kids despite a total lack of teaching credentials.

Believe it or not, America does have talent and it’s in classrooms all across America.  The teaching profession has its own superstars.  But the media doesn’t seem interested in either seeking them out, or in giving space in print, on air or online to these special educators who not only do incredible work with young people, but who strive to better education.  The word “hero” gets bandied about too easily these days, but some of these folks would be candidates for such an honored title.

It’s wonderful that President Obama is willing to rattle the teachers union status quo about merit pay, it’s good to see Education Secretary Duncan taking risks by stating teachers need to be held accountable, but neither of these gentlemen have teaching experience.  And the president’s two daughters attend private school, just as the majority of politicians’ children do.  These folks may be the least qualified to stake a claim on what’s best for kids in this country’s public schools.

It seems that the media listens to everyone who has an opinion about teacher and schools except those who actually teach to America’s youth.

When I was doing research for my latest book and came across a report from the College Board, the folks behind the SAT and AP tests, I noticed on the very first page at the top was a quote triple the size of the other text attributed to former IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr.  When I read it my eyes bugged out—it was a quote from my first book.  Not a word altered, moved or deleted.  Verbatim.

To the College Board’s credit, once I brought the matter to their attention, they were apologetic and made the correction.  In a way I understood why I wasn’t credited. Who am I?  I’m not a billionaire or celebrity or national politician. I’m just a classroom teacher.

One of the paradoxes in good teachers is their innate desire to help others and, at the same time, not take credit for it.  This selflessness has to change.  Good teachers should stand up and speak out and take ownership of their own profession, and don’t let outsiders take away the spotlight of their work.  Until that happens, teachers will continue to be overlooked, their expertise unexplored.

 

Leave a comment Posted on lockdowns, Public Education, School Shootings

Unlock the lockdowns

When I was in elementary school we used to practice two emergency drills:  one for fire which was an evacuation, and another for a nuclear bomb, commonly known as a duck and cover.  During the Cold War, the Red Scare, a Soviet Union attack, was on everyone’s mind.

Then the 1971 Sylmar earthquake happened and all the schools began practicing earthquake drills.

After the shootings at Columbine in 1999, soon lockdown drills were added to the emergency drill repertoire.

And now the history books will add Sandy Hook in 2012.  I’m not sure if this stomach-wrenching tragedy will generate any changes in emergency procedures.  However, here’s hoping smart people will reexamine the lockdown procedure.

I have experienced two real lockdowns.  Thank God, neither one turned out badly.  Much of the horror stems from the tactic employed of locking the doors, turning off the lights, students hiding in the corners. Remaining quiet and motionless on the floor, uncomfortably cramped under a table for two hours is terrifying, trying to peek through vertical blinds for any shadow approaching.

I’ve never understood the logic behind the lockdown drill.  Most school shootings are perpetrated by students who attend those campuses, meaning they are fully aware that just because a door is locked and a room dark does not mean no one is inside. Any killer can easily shoot out a door and find a classroom of sitting duck victims. 

At Sandy Hook, the murderer calmly walked into rooms and executed kids who were motionless.

For the teacher, there is no worse feeling than having no communication with the administrators.  Besides the P.A. announcement of a lockdown, no further messages are aired.  No e-mails are sent to teacher computers.  Cell phones aren’t even utilized.

“It was only fifteen minutes,” an outside observer may comment.  But let me tell you, when you are crouched down under a table, hearing muffled cries and whispers from students, unsure how to comfort them, unable to calm your rapidly beating heart, peering up through the slits of vertical blinds hoping not to get a glimpse of a gunman, it seems like an eternity.

I understand the logic of not having kids run wild.  A maniac is likely to shoot a moving target.  However, at least there is a chance of escape.  Crouching under a table only works on the completely random chance that the shooter doesn’t choose that classroom.

While we all know these tragic events are thankfully quite rare, they unsettle all of us:  parents, teachers, children.         

School officials need to figure out a better way of protecting children during future lockdown episodes.   Standing still in one place in the dark is not allowing innocent teachers and students a fighting chance.

It wasn’t that long ago when society feared a foreign intruder harming our nation.  Now, that intruder is among us.

 

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education, robocalls

Enough with the Robocalls

How many of you parents receive regular robocalls from your child’s school, those automated phone messages sent home? I receive three of them a week: one from my son’s elementary school principal, one from my other son’s middle school principal, and one from my principal. One time a superintendent sent out a robocall on the night of Yom Kippur.

What began as an efficient way to communicate with parents about school events has turned into a regular running show that intrudes into one’s personal life, the calls occurring on the same day at the same time.  Almost all of the messages are of the non-emergency kind (thankfully) and are mainly repetitive of what’s on the school’s website or physically sent home to parents via the students. It is very easy to tune out the recorded messages which is not what the people sending the messages want to hear.   

However, our lives are overflowing with messages these days, visual and aural. Look at how many spam messages you get on your computer, junk mail you get stuffed in your mailbox, TV monitors in your face at restaurants, market checkout stands, and gas station pumps. Everybody wants to get our attention.

The problem is, when you do the same thing over and over, soon the message will not get through. When you have one person jumping up and down waving one’s arms, it is attention getting. But when you have five people doing it, it all becomes a blur, a kind of white noise.

Just because you can send a phone message home to all students doesn’t mean it’s effective communication.

 I wish that those who have the technology used it more prudently and wisely for when a truly important message needs to get to parents, many may have already hung up.

 

Leave a comment Posted on youth sports

Little League, Big Politics

I wish to address two issues related to children playing team sports:   overly competitiveness and selfish coaches.

When you are a parent of a child playing sports, it is not all fun and games.

Having two boys who have played team sports, I have discovered that the honeymoon of the “sports are fun” concept is quite short. The competitive and political nature of youth athletics begins before children reach double digits.

Recently I attended a basketball tournament and I was amazed at how competitive some of the teams were with kids who appeared eight or nine years old. I’m talking about kids who had no reservations about bumping into one another or driving to the hoop and falling hard onto the wooden floor out of bounds.

Here’s the Catch 22 on youth sports. If your child isn’t good enough, he is not going to get as much playing time as another child who is, yet if he doesn’t get to play that much, he’s not going to gain experience playing the sport.

Therefore, if a parent is serious about his child playing at a level good enough not for the pros, not even for colleges, but for high schools, then the parent is going to have to use other ways for that child to become better.

I was aware of these travel teams, private groups coached by independent contractors, where the sport is played for real. We never put out sons in travel teams because it sounded like too much pressure too early. Now that our oldest is going into high school, I wished I at least tried a travel team.

He tried out for the summer basketball team and made it. However, it is clear that many of his teammates have been playing at a higher level for quite some time. We are trying to have him improve quickly before the next tryouts occur in the fall by doing extra drills and conditioning exercises.

Even then, he has an uphill battle to catch up to these other players. So here’s some advice. Before your kids turn 10, have them play the sport as often as possible, pay for private lessons and/or travel clubs, and find an agent. Otherwise, their playing days may be over at age 9.

Of course, their playing days may already be limited if they coaches who play favorites.

Such favoritism is epidemic in youth sports. While there are a few coaches who don’t play favorites, too many do just that. There seems to be an unwritten approval that those parents who donate their time coaching teams get to do what they want with their players even if it means that their own children get preferential treatment.

The National Alliance for Youth Sports has developed the National Standards for Youth Sports.  Standard #8 states that “leagues must encourage equal play time for all participants.”

In reality, player playing time and player positions are at the whims of the coach.  Therefore, if a parent is unlucky to have a stubborn coach whose only interest is his own child’s welfare and those of his best buddies, all other children are out of luck.

What these coaches don’t realize or care about is that many parents sit in the stands for two hours to see their child participate, but often only see their child hit once or play defense an inning or two. That is pure selfishness on the part of the coaches who are too absorbed maximizing playing time for their own children.

Typically, the coach’s son isn’t the best ballplayer, yet game after game that child bats first and only plays infield or is the main pitcher or catcher.

I don’t get coaches who have a set line-up of third graders. I’ve seen the same kids bat last game after game meaning that the coach’s son gets two at-bats while those near the bottom of the line-up only get one. In other words, the coach’s favorites get twice the amount of batting experience.  How does this translate into “equal play for all participants”?

These coaches don’t take into consideration that the child’s relatives —aunts, uncles, grandparents—make special trips to the games in order to see their little loved ones participate. But due to the selfishness of certain coaches, they hardly see their nephew or grandchild play. Something is wrong with the way these teams get managed.

Leagues should require that for pre-teen teams, players should be rotated in the line-up and play both in the infield and the outfield so that each child can share a similar experience.

Another guideline coaches are supposed to follow is Standard #3 which states that “coaches should be trained in . . . the emotional needs of children.”  I’ve lost track at how many times I’ve noticed the same kids in the dugout inning after inning, not getting a chance to play.  

My youngest son who loved t-ball for two years now dreads going to his new team’s games because, as he puts it, “I’m so bored in the outfield.”  And when he is sitting on the bench, sometimes alone, how is this meeting his emotional needs? Think about this. If a kid doesn’t play on the field and has to wait for 13 other kids to bat around before he bats again, that child can easily sit on the bench for over an hour. How is that fun, productive, or healthy?  

I understand that as kids get older, their abilities get sorted out and those who can field a ball well play the infield and those with strong arms play the outfield. But how can that determination be made at age 8 or 9, when they are barely getting the hang of how to play baseball?  Many of them are still preoccupied with swatting at gnats and doing twirls in the outfield. But that is part of the charm at this age. And it is such charm that is quickly extinguished by insensitive coaches.

All the more reason why adults who volunteer their time to work with these kids should have a basic understanding of their mental and emotional growth.   Too often, coaches already view their sons as future Major League prospects or scholarship meal tickets which explain why their sons always bat first or always play the infield no matter the number of strikeouts or errors.

It seems the only way to defend against such unfair treatment is to form a team yourself. If I were more physically able, I would have done so years ago. However, if I were the coach, even if my son was the most talented ballplayer, I would never have him bat first or only play the infield just for appearance sake so other parents knew I wasn’t playing favorites. It’s amazing the brazen audacity that these coaches have with no threat of repercussions. 

Youth sports organizations should pay more attention to those parents who don’t play fair, and should ensure that all children be given equal opportunity to fully explore their range of capabilities.  

1 Comment Posted on public health, sunflower seed shells littering

Spitting Angry When it Comes to Sunflower Seeds

“Eat, Spit and Be Happy.” That’s the motto of ConAgra’s David Sunflower Seeds. That also apparently is the motto of most people who sit in city park bleachers as evidenced by the abundant piles of sunflower seed shells literally left in the dust. 
  
Every time I go to one of my sons’ baseball games in Burbank, I cringe knowing that I have to sit in the bleachers, desperately searching for a clean place to put my rear and feet so that my body doesn’t touch the shells that fly out of people’s mouths. 
  
The main culprit is people who selfishly think that spitting out food debris is okay, assuming city workers will clean up their mess. I observe many people, from senior citizens to young kids, spitting out their shells all over the place.  The benches and the areas underneath the bleachers are blanketed with them.

I was told by one city official that the habit of spitting out shells is an ingrained cultural trait, as old as the game of baseball. 
  
However, what is wrong with posting signs asking people to use the park trash cans? Another city representative said that the problem with posting a sign is that there are too many signs already posted. However, in many areas there isn’t a single sign around.

The mess that greets visitors at city parks does not show off civic pride. Of the Burbank City Council, it appears that the only Councilman Gary Bric cares about this issue since the mayor and three other council members did not feel the issue warranted an acknowledgment to a citizen, let alone a journalist.

I contacted ConAgra to see what they thought about this issue. Company spokesperson Daniel Hare said that he thinks there is no public health issue when it comes to shells from sunflower seeds even though the shells have saliva on them. Does he think the company’s ad slogan encourages young people to spit? He didn’t think it was a problem. Would ConAgra consider a public service announcement on their packaging and advertisements such as “please do not litter”? No comment.

Even if the question of public health is debatable, spitting out shells is still littering. Would these litterers like it if some of the shells fell onto a family member’s hair? How about if a toddler without shoes were to walk on freshly spewed shells still wet? Evidently, it isn’t a health concern. Accompanying my piece is a photo I took last Saturday at Burbank’s Olive Park, Field Number Three. It was early in the morning, before most of the games were played that day and, as you can see, the place clearly wasn’t cleaned in who knows how long, certainly not that day. 
  
Is this the type of impression city officials which to leave with its citizens and visitors, that Burbank parks are dirty?

Why not dedicate one maintenance worker to keep all city park bleacher areas clean via sweeping or blowers especially on days the parks are heavily used?  
  
By not cleaning the mess people leave, it encourages more people to be messy. Think of a park toilet that is unkempt. People are more likely to contribute to the filth rather than control their dirty habits. 
  
And parents and grandparents, what kind of habits are you modeling for your children? Imagine if the shells were cigarette butts. Would people be okay with that? Probably not because smoking is considered one of the worst things a person can do in public in today’s times. But having food products spewing from one’s mouth is fine. 
  
Burbank city officials should seriously consider posting signs at all city park bleacher areas, “Please Deposit Sunflower Seed Shells in the Garbage Cans.” Do we need to resurrect the old public service announcement with Iron Eyes Cody with a tear streaming down his face? Maybe it should be Babe Ruth crying.

 

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education, teaching

Putting the Pro into Profession

Remember the old saying, “dress for success?”

Ever since Presidents have been removing their jackets and rolling up their long sleeves as a way to appear “cool,” proper dressing habits haven’t been the same in quite some time.  Nonetheless, I feel it’s important to dress appropriately when going to work.

One of the ways teachers can help raise the level of professionalization in their occupation is to dress properly for work.  While I understand the urge to deliberately dress down as a way to be on the same level with one’s students, an important ideal of education should be to uplift pupils’ minds.  Coming to work as if one is going to the beach doesn’t foster the notion that learning needs to be taken seriously.

I usually wear a sports jacket and most every day a tie when I teach.  I view it as a teacher’s uniform.  And while I would disapprove of a formal dress policy for teachers, some parameters couldn’t hurt (think the “What Not to Wear” TV program).

On the very first day of the school year, I saw one of my colleagues with an untucked shirt, shorts, and sandals.   This shouldn’t be the initial impression given to one’s students.  I wouldn’t want to see my doctor and have him come into the examination room with shorts and flip flops.  And I wouldn’t want my children’s teachers dressing likewise.

A school is a special place where special things take place.  Teachers should dress for those occasions.

Leave a comment Posted on Huell Howser

Huell Howser—Historian of Us All

Hearing the news that Huell Howser passed away is a sad day for Angelenos.  His public TV programs, including Visiting and California’s Gold, spotlighted the best in people and places.

When I was a kid, Ralph Story was the TV historian of Los Angeles on Channel 2 News, providing stories of the region of things that I either knew nothing about or very little.  Then Huell Howser came long on the same station.

With a folksy, honest “good to meet ‘cha” attitude, Huell (Mr. Howser seems too formal) could go anywhere with a microphone and a camera and speak to strangers.  In fact, one of his shows was called “The Bench,” where he literally sat on a bench and spoke to anyone who walked by.

There is a lot of stuff to love about California. I’ve lived here all my life and haven’t seen even half of the sights it has to offer. Through Huell, I’ve vacationed vicariously, to the northernmost and southernmost points of the state, to all 21 California missions, to the lady who made art out of lint from her dryer, to the animal trainer saying a last goodbye to his old elephant friend.

And who could not relate to his love of food? From See’s Candy to Stan’s Donuts, he tasted and savored these delicious goodies for us all.

His wide-eyed reaction to all small and large things of marvel was a joy to watch. Even when some would make fun of his wholesome enthusiasm, it was done with much love and respect. In a way, we all wish we could be like Huell Howser and not so cynical and grumpy.

He made his work look so easy, meaning it really wasn’t.

I remember his reaction to the 1992 riots and how dejected he felt that regular folks would loot their neighborhood stores.

I remember him advocating for the protection of Los Angeles landmarks, fighting to save the Farmer’s Market.

He showcased our past as a way for us to remember that those of us living today have a legacy to leave behind.  He brought all kinds of people together like no politician ever could.

He is one of those famous people who while you may never have known him personally, you felt that you did know him. That’s why his death is like a death in one’s family. It is difficult to imagine life without him.

The only good that comes out of a death like this is that it serves as a reminder to all of us that life is fragile. None of us knows how many days we have to live. The cliché of living each day fully, as a gift, resonates strongly.

How ironic that the man who would end each “California’s Gold” introduction with the words “in search of California’s Gold” was as precious as the people and places he invited viewers to get to know.

In a time when ugliness permeates the airwaves, Huell brought us real stories about real people, mainly because he was a real person himself. Yes, we can still watch his programs, and, in that regard, his legacy lives on. Still, a piece of California’s gold has forever been lost.

It is up to us now to never forget Huell Howser.

Leave a comment Posted on Obscenity, Sex in the Media

The Pornification of America

“Sex sells” used to be the mantra of Madison Avenue.  Today it is smut that sells.

People can be very good at trumpeting certain causes, such as outlawing cigarette smoking in public places, making sure animals have rights, cleaning up the environment.  But when it comes to the pollution of the eyes and ears, protests are nonexistent.

So many stimuli exist in the 21st century that makes it practically impossible to shield young children from being bombarded by images and sounds that at the very least makes it quite difficult to explain to young people, at the worst makes life around them coarse and vulgar.

In the past, double entendres were employed as a way to get around a censor.  Nowadays, there is no fooling of what the true meaning of something is.  In fact, often the magnified message is quite clear, slammed in your face super-sized style, leaving no doubt what is intended.

All this crassness in the advertising and marketing industries is akin to a bunch of boys sneaking a peak at a porn website.  They know what they’re doing is considered “forbidden” but it’s fun doing it anyway because they’re getting away with something.

Here are recent samples of promotional campaigns that have appeared in print, on television, on billboards, and, incredulously, on public buses.  Evidently, city transportation agencies have no sense of decency on how they generate revenue.

Look at the HBO series “Hung.”  No, it is not about capital punishment.  According to the series description, “Ray resolves to take advantage of his greatest asset, in hopes of changing his fortunes in a big way.”

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”  Amazingly, some news outlets showed a touch of class by refusing to run the full title of this film.

“E! The Girls Next Door” ran commercials during TBS’s broadcast of the baseball division series last fall showing scenes of naked women’s backsides blurred, a naked woman who had mud on her breasts and nothing else, and women in all kind of lurid poses.  What a nice way to spend the evening with my 9-year-old son.

Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” had the ad line “life is full of little pricks.”

Quizno’s marketing campaign for its Toasty Torpedo sandwich with a commercial showing a man physically inserting a phallic-shaped sandwich into an oven opening, with the oven speaking to the man ala the computer HAL from “2001:  A Space Odyssey,” “Put it in me, Scott.”

An ad for ”Bad Teacher” showed star Cameron Diaz leaning back at her desk in a classroom, her feet propped upon the desk with her legs uncovered, the words “eat me” on an apple, and the tagline, “She doesn’t give an F.”

What makes it worse is that the subject matter is a teacher.  The real world is crammed with enough true horror stories about inappropriate student-teacher relationships, so is it smart or responsible for a major motion picture studio to make a movie like this and distribute in theatres as entertainment across the country?

You know, not every movie-going patron is an oversexed sophomoric male whose sexual habits get satiated with Internet porn sites.

Clearly, things have gotten out of control.  This is not about censorship.  It’s about boundaries.  It’s about someone, somewhere taking a stand for what is naughty and what is nice.

If your reaction to these examples is “big deal,” then my point is made:  people have become blinded to good taste.

No standards seem to exist anywhere anymore.  Are viewers asleep out there?

We all should feel embarrassed when we see and hear these images.  Evidently shame is on the endangered species list of human traits along with responsibility for one’s actions.

No, using four-letter words and profane depictions is not the end of American civilization.  But why aren’t more people riled up about these gutter tactics occurring regularly on TV, billboards, and webpages?

One of the main problems with so much of this is the blurring of right from wrong.  Children growing up with a coarser culture are bound to be courser themselves.

We don’t know the possible harm that is being done on young people’s psyches.  As human beings all of us should strive to be the best that we can be.  Unfortunately, too many media messages push the envelope in a kind of contest of how crude can people get.

There is plenty of room in the marketplace for garbage.  The public should have the choice whether or not to be forced to look at it and smell it.

Whenever you see something that definitely crosses the line, make a point not to see the movie or watch the series or buy the product.  It is time for good, decent people to let these companies know that enough is enough.

 

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education

Start Charging Parents for Public Schools

With states across the country facing huge budget deficits and potential devastating cuts to services, the time has come to start charging parents tuition for their children’s public school education.

If parents of the 47 million students in the United States who attend kindergarten through

12th grade were billed $360 per child per year, that’s $2 a day for each of the 180 days of instruction, nearly $17 billion would be generated. However, let’s say only half of the parents can foot the bill. That still leaves $8.5 billion to deliver to public schools.

Cutting a week out of the already skimpy school calendar as a way to save money, an idea proposed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is not the solution to a fiscal crisis, though if the week cut out was the one for state testing, many teachers and students wouldn’t mind. Already American kids attend school fewer days than most other industrialized nations. While a free education for all is a wonderful gift, it’s simply not possible anymore.

Can half of America’s parents afford $360 per year for each of their children? For the price of a cup of coffee, a child can get educated for a day. For the price of a movie ticket, a child can get educated for a week. For the price of a cellular phone bill, a child can get educated for a month. For the price of a video game console, a child can get educated for an entire year.

There should be no sticker shock about this. Already parents pay for athletic uniforms, musical instruments, lab fees, school-embossed clothing, and field trips. Plus, they get nickeled and dimed to death from schools throughout the year to donate money for art and music programs, to get their cars washed for athletic programs, to consume cardboard pizza so that a few dollars will go to the schools. Children would no longer have to go begging relatives and neighbors to buy coupon books.

For years community colleges charged no tuition. Then 20 years ago they started implementing a $50 per semester fee which rose to $60 per semester in the 1990’s. “How dare they” demonstrations broke out proclaiming the beginning of the end of community colleges. Well, today the colleges have more students than ever before, and the current fee is $20 per unit. For an average class load of 15 units, the cost of one semester’s tuition of college is $300. Nearly half of community college students get their tuition waived anyway due to their low-income status.

Look, nobody enjoys paying for services that used to be free. However, a generation of people has grown up with cable television and don’t even remember that TV used to cost nothing. Paying $360 a year for a child’s education is half of what the average person spends on watching television. Which is more important?

Attaching a price to “free” services will help students and parents understand the value of education. Psychologically it’s interesting how people view something that is “free”: they tend to place less value on it than if they have to pay for it. Walk onto campuses right after lunch, especially at high schools, and notice the garbage strewn around. Kids would less likely trash their schools knowing their parents had a vested interest in the property.

Beyond charging for tuition, parents should be billed whenever their children are truant. Since schools receive funding based on average daily attendance, parents should foot the bill whenever their children miss school for non-illness reasons.

The Scotts Valley School District in Santa Cruz, California is doing just that. The letter sent home entitled “If You Play, Please Pay” informs parents that one child absent for one day costs $36.13. In 2005-06, the district lost nearly one-quarter of $1 million due to students missing school other than legitimate illnesses. While paying the bill is voluntary, many parents, perhaps out of guilt, gladly pay it, further proof that there are parents out there who would pay for school tuition.

A holiday season just ended where scores of parents spent hundreds of dollars on video games, I-pods and cell phones for their children. Is $360 going to break their backs?

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education

Transforming America’s Public Schools

Almost a half a trillion dollars is spent on K-12 education each year and look at the results.

One out of every four American children reads below grade level.

One out of every three high school students do not graduate, a stagnant figure for thirty years.

In New York City, less than half of students graduate.  In Detroit that figure is one-fourth.  That’s a staggering number that puts new meaning to the term “dropout factories.”

The problem is not all the bad students; rather, all the bad schools.

Who decided that taking standardized tests was going to revolutionize public education?

Why does such a critical job as teaching require only minimum training and pay?

When did parents decide to stop believing the teachers’ point of view, that teachers are the enemy, to be doubted and questioned?

Why are we amazed that kids who are forced to sit still in uncomfortable plastic chairs for six hours a day easily get bored, distracted, defiant?

Like a dilapidated ramshackle fixer-upper that is more cost-effective to scrap than to renovate, now is the time to bulldoze America’s public school system.

The change that is needed in public education must be huge, along the lines of the civil rights movement.  The same fervor people exert in anti-smoking campaigns needs to be replicated in efforts to transform public schools.

The teaching of America’s youth should be viewed as a bulwark against democracy’s demise.  It’s no good to just let students “get by.”

We must demand excellence.  Our country’s economic future rests on it.

What’s needed is a cohesive vision of a new kind of public school system.

Lengthen the school day and the school year.  There is not enough time to cover all the material in 180 days.  By adding 4 more weeks to the school year and an hour and a half to the school day, children will have an additional year and a half of education between kindergarten and 12th grade.  And they will still get 11 weeks off.

Increase class sizes and teacher salaries.  Schools can’t find enough highly qualified teachers so have fewer of them.  Yes this will mean more crowded classrooms but better teachers can handle more kids.  The money saved from fewer employees can be added to the salaries of those instructors who prove themselves invaluable.

Eliminate homework.  With the longer day students and teachers will have more time to go over the work during class.  Kids can leave work at work and spend more time with their families at home.

Place a moratorium on No Child Left Behind.  Enough with the testing.  Put the focus back on where it should be: the work students perform in the classroom day in and day out.

Bring back vocational education.  Instead of shoehorning everyone into college, provide those students who demonstrate non-academic skills with alternative programs.

Kick out the bad kids.  The concept that no matter how badly behaved a child is he still has a seat waiting for him in a school is incredulous and the main reason why parents pay money for private schooling.  If a child can’t meet a certain degree of decorum, let his parents deal with him so that those children who do want to learn can learn.

A four-day work week for teachers.  Other public servants such as police and firefighters work four sometimes even three days a week due to the stressful conditions of their occupation.  Teachers should be afforded the same perk.  On the fifth day highly qualified paraeducators can run the classrooms taking students on field trips and job shadowing expeditions.

Do away with tenure and teachers unions.  Let bad teachers be easily fired and not cloak themselves in the teachers union armor.  It is time to elevate teaching to a real profession with rewards and punishments.

Go back and teach students the Golden Rule and have them employ it in mandatory community service.  Look at our society and the mess it’s in.  Much of this has to do with lax parenting and non-existent social teaching in the schools.  Students can become better citizens if schools mandate community service as a graduation requirement.

Put a lid on special education funding.  Nothing has wreaked more damage to the funding of schools than special ed has.  It costs twice as much money to educate a special ed student than a non-special ed student.

Start charging for public schools.  Too many people take public school for granted:  free learning, free books, free supplies, free child care, even free food.  No wonder many kids disrespect their place of learning.

Will there be heated discussions about implementing these changes?  Absolutely.

Do details have to be ironed out?  Of course.

But if we don’t get started with a sound vision of solid public schools, every new school fix-it plan whether it’s more testing, block scheduling or the latest computer software will add up to nothing.

Yes, national security is a top priority (though many people can’t locate Iraq on a map), but the best form of homeland security is education security.  Do we want our military to have poorly educated people in its ranks?  You can’t outsource an army.

Every day forty-seven million children attend public schools.

Every day three thousand students drop out of high school.

What type of experience do we want to provide America’s youth?

The time has come to act.

We must provide a public school system worthy of them.